Catholic bishops criticize asylum ruling excluding domestic violence

Updated June 13, 2018 at 3:36 PM;Posted June 13, 2018 at 3:35 PM

In this April 21, 2017 file photo, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions stands at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego. Sessions said June 11 that immigration judges generally cannot consider domestic and gang violence as grounds for asylum. (Hayne Palmour IV/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP, File)

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is calling U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recent decision to not allow asylum on the basis of domestic violence a matter of "deep concern."

Sessions overruled Monday an immigration appeals court decision that granted asylum to a Salvadoran woman who said she had been sexually, emotionally and physically abused by her husband.

"The Attorney General's recent decision elicits deep concern because it potentially strips asylum from many women who lack adequate protection. These vulnerable women will now face return to the extreme dangers of domestic violence in their home country," said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the USCCB and archbishop of Galveston-Houston.

"This decision negates decades of precedents that have provided protection to women fleeing domestic violence. Unless overturned, the decision will erode the capacity of asylum to save lives, particularly in cases that involve asylum seekers who are persecuted by private actors."

He added in his statement read at the annual four-day June meeting of the USCCB in Fort Lauderdale, "We urge courts and policy makers to respect and enhance, not erode, the potential of our asylum system to preserve and protect the right to life."

Central America has been documented as having one of the highest rates of female violence in the world and there is now a term for such victimization - feminisation of violence. These women are regarded as fleeing gender violence in countries that are unable or unwilling to protect them.

Mexico recognizes domestic violence as a reason for seeking asylum, and the United Nations Refugee Agency has said, "Sexual violence, such as rape, may constitute persecution" in determining refugee status.

Refugees enter the United States with legal status. Asylum seekers are individuals who meet the definition of a refugee but may be in the country without legal status or at the point of entry and seek protection.

DiNardo said, "At its core, asylum is an instrument to preserve the right to life."

His statement also included support for Bishop Joe S. Vasquez, who heads the Diocese of Austin, Texas.

Vasquez had issued a statement June 1 calling the Trump administration's actions of separating children from parents illegally crossing at U.S. borders "ineffective to the goals of deterrence and safety and contrary to our Catholic values."

"Additionally, I join Bishop Joe Vasquez, chairman of USCCB's committee on migration, in condemning the continued use of family separation at the U.S./Mexico border as an implementation of the administration's zero tolerance policy," DiNardo said.

"Our government has the discretion in our laws to ensure that young children are not separated from their parents and exposed to irreparable harm and trauma. Families are the foundational element of our society and they must be able to stay together. While protecting our borders is important, we can and must do better as a government, and as a society, to find other ways to ensure that safety. Separating babies from their mothers is not the answer and is immoral."

In his ruling Sessions also excluded gang violence, something many Central American women are documented as being victims of, as a reason for asylum.

Sessions termed domestic violence as "private," and something a victim would have to prove failure to intervene by any outside authorities in order to obtain asylum on the grounds of domestic violence.

"I understand that many victims of domestic violence may seek to flee from their home countries to extricate themselves from a dire situation or to give themselves the opportunity for a better life," he wrote.

"But the asylum statute is not a general hardship statute.'"

Criticism of Sessions' ruling has come for a number of others, including U.S. Congresswoman Judy Chu who represents California's 27th district who called it "cruel."

"This is a cruel policy, and like most acts of hate, it defies logic and humanitarian principles. These asylum seekers are mostly women for whom being returned home can be a death sentence, or, at the very least, condemns them to violence and retribution for trying to flee their abusers," said Chu in a statement on her website.

"Others are children who may have witnessed crimes or received death threats for refusing to join a gang. Here they have a chance at a normal life. There, they face punishment for trying to live their lives free of persecution."